Dominion sent their master of arrogance and hubris, Chuck Penn, to represent their interests and true to form he made one misleading statement and accusation after another. I suspect he and the Dominion executives who elected to make the matter personal didn’t expect to run into the buzz saw that is the otherwise mild-mannered Elena Schlossberg. She sliced and diced Mr. Penn into a pile of bloody body parts that would have made Freddy Krueger proud, and truth be told, Mr. Penn deserved every bit of it.

Mr. Penn’s version of events has Chairman Stewart “colluding” with the “wealthy, affluent and connected” residents of Somerset Crossing to force the route onto Carver Road. He refers to the “sweetheart deal” as the “subterfuge of more influential people”. Nothing could be further from the truth. He makes no mention of all of the other neighborhoods and areas that have, from day one, opposed every route other than the I-66 Hybrid Route. Bear in mind that the other proposed routes ran through Piedmont, Heritage Hunt, and Bull Run Mountain just to name a few. By Mr. Penn’s reasoning since most of those routes were removed by Dominion prior to submission to the SCC, one must presume that there was collusion between Dominion and the “wealthy, affluent and connected” residents of those communities.

No Mr. Penn, the onus for the Carver Route falls solely upon Dominion Energy. He asserts that the Carver Route came as a result of the BOCS blocking the Railroad Route earlier this year. What he fails to note is that the Carver Route (and Madison Route) was first proposed nearly two years ago, largely in response to the community outrage over the Railroad, Northern, Western, New Road and I-66 Overhead Routes. No Mr. Penn, you can not blame Chairman Stewart, the Somerset Crossing HOA or the Coalition for the quagmire Dominion finds itself in, Dominion can only blame itself for the miserable routes selected and the deficient vetting of the Carver and Madison Routes. Truth be told, I suspect that those two routes were simply red herrings designed to force acceptance of the Railroad or I-66 Overhead Route by the SCC, a strategy that has now blown up in Dominion’s face.

Speaking of the Northern Alternative Route and suspect behavior, perhaps the next person to run into Chuck Penn, a former resident of the Haymarket area, should ask him about the property at 14404 Slatemore Court in Haymarket. You see, an indivdual named Charles E. Penn, Sr. purchased that property in May of 2013 (Instrument Number 201305310055727), a little more than a year before the single option Railroad Route was first presented. That same property was then sold by Charles E. Penn, Sr. in October of 2015 (Instrument Number 201510050083236), mere months after the Northern Route which just happened to run along the edge of the neighborhood was removed from consideration. Coincidence, I think not. What say you to that Mr. Penn and remember, it was not I that began the accusation game.

Comments:

Wow. Chuck Penn, self-dealing and trading on insider information, while lobbing false accusations of the same behavior at others.

Odd too, Mr. Penn lobs the accusation of “affluence” when he’s clearly in the same boat – and in a better class cabin. Property records show he sold for $530,000 in 2015. In the same year, out of 500+ residential properties on the Railroad Route, the average value assessed by PWC was $222,735 (and that’s cutting out 200+ zero-value lots). It gets even better for Mr. Penn. The maximum tax assessed value of a residential home on the Railroad Route during 2015: $354K. Compare that with Mr. Penn’s tax assessed value of $499K.

Net: Chuck Penn’s sweet deal was worth more than TWICE the average Railroad Route property and more than $150K more than the highest valued property. Now, who exactly used their affluence to cut a deal? To collude?

This is shameful, Mr. Penn. Forget your credibility as a frontman making public statements. This is a “man in the mirror/can I look my family in the eye?” moment.

And out of respect for the residents along the Carver Road alternative, using PWC tax records, if Mr. Penn’s $530,000 property had been along your route when he sold in 2015, he wouldn’t have had the #1 most valuable residential property. He would have only been #2.

The full Carver Road route is a bit more diverse than Railroad in terms of home types and values, but it seems Mr. Penn’s affluence is safe no matter which route he might have chosen to speculate on.

They also have similar ads that appear to be blaming Stewart appearing on web pages now. I noticed them starting yesterday. Living here and being familiar with what is going on, I pretty much ignored it and not fall for the click bait thing to see what it had to say in detail, but seeing it did irritate me